Samyang 35mm f1.4 AF for Sony E mount – First Impressions

Samyang has done it again with a cutting-edge AF lens for the Sony E mount.This 35mm f1.4 AF is the latest addition to the 35 mm f2.8 AF, 14mm f2.8 AF, and 50mm f1.4 AF lens lineup. The 35mm is compatible with full frame cameras from the Sony a7 and a9 collections. The new f1.4 lens is a value you don’t want to miss, producing consistently high-quality images for $899-$950 AUD. It will be available for pre-order exclusively at Digidirect. Be sure to visit their website https://www.digidirect.com.au/ for Australian members. This lens is marketed with Aim High, Create Artwork for both enthusiast and professional photographers. This lens is solid-built with a smooth focus ring and petal lens hood. The glass contains 11 elements and 9 groups to produce a beautiful bokeh effect. This lens possesses aperture capabilities from f1.4-f16 and accepts 67mm filter threads.

Initial Thoughts:

I have been testing this lens for about a month now, a lot of people who know me knows how much I love my 35mm lens. This lens is a very versatile focal length been able to use it for Landscapes, Portraits, Street Photography, Weddings and Everyday situations. The f1.4 been a bonus for low light shots for weddings and street photography making it an affordable lens for Sony users. When having this lens mounted on my camera it feels well balanced just as my zeiss 35mm when mounted on.

Shooting with this lens for the pass 4 weeks i haven’t noticed any colour fringing or chromatic aberration. Below is an image straight out of camera shot wide open. I took this shot of the leaves with a bright background to see if i could see anything but there was nothing. I will be doing more tests for my comparison video.

Bokeh:
First things first, the Bokeh. One thing that really caught my eye with this lens is the bokeh. With it’s 9 aperture blade producing amazing bokeh. Giving you perfect circle bokeh in centre and the corners having a slight oval shape but still pleasing to look at. Below is an image showing the patterns in the bokeh.

(All images can be clicked to zoom in)

This image is the RAW straight out of camera. Another thing i noticed with the samyang lens besides the bokeh is the contrast levels this lens produces which gives a slight pop to the images which i liked.

Sharpness:
One question i was asked about was sharpness. Using the Samyang 35mm i found it sharp wide open and producing amazing out of focus backgrounds but a bit soft in the corners.

Sharp in the centre wide open and soft in corners (click on the images to zoom in)

I found 35mm lens gets sharper in centre when stopped down to f2.8

The lens starts to get extremely sharp in the centre and sharper in the corners when stopped down at f7.1

This is an image i captured in Sydney CBD with the Samyang 35mm f1.4. This was shots at f7.1, ISO 100, shutter 5 sec. This lens have captured this image really well showing how sharp everything is.

Vignetting:

The Samyang 35mm f1.4 shows a slight vignetting wide open, which never bothered me as i like to add some vignetting to my images and when stopped down to f4 there is no signs of vignetting shown on the image.

Shot at f1.4 where you can see the slight vignetting

This was shot at f4 showing no vignetting

Eye-AF:

With the Samyang 35mm f1.4 it is able to use Eye-AF which is a very popular feature for Sony Users especially for portraits. Eye-AF is there to help making sure the eyes are always in focus and sharp. With the Samyang Eye-AF it is fast and accurate making the eyes in focus and tack sharp, especially in low light the eye-af pick up on the subject without any issues. The below image was captured with the Sony a7rii at ISO 640, f1.4, shutter 1/100, i have also attached the same image cropped in to show how sharp the eyes are. Autofocus i will talk about about it on my video so keep an eye on my youtube channel www.youtube.com/c/hrimages as i will be showing how the AF performs.

I also had the opportunity to use the 35mm f1.4 during a corporate event with my Sony a7sii, the lens kept up really well. Below are a few images captured during the event.

As a lot of people know i own both the Zeiss 35mm f1.4 & the Samyang 35mm f1.4, i will be doing a side by side comparison and overall performance between the two lens so subscribe to my youtube channel to get notified when the video is up. www.youtube.com/c/hrimages. On my youtube video with the comparison i will talk more in detail with the lens especially with Autofocus for both stills and videos.

Conclusion:

The 35mm lens has been a popular focal length to get, with only Zeiiss producing an AF 35mm for Sony E Mount and Sigma art 35mm f1.4 via adapter.The Samyang sets out to tick all the boxes, and has brought out another affordable 35mm especially at f1.4 and a native mount for Sony E Mount, which is able to use all the Sony functions. The overall performance of this lens has performed really well, producing great images that are sharp, Stunning bokeh and colours straight out of camera. This lens is ideal for basically any situation and the 1.4 aperture is a bonus especially for low light work. If you’re in the market for an affordable Native 35mm f1.4 lens for Sony E Mount and is able to use all of Sony features. Have a look at the Samyang you won’t be disappointed.

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Hey there! Thank you for comparing it! I’m definitely waiting to see if I want this lens because of the f/1.4 over the 35mm f/2.8 Zeiss. Just curious, how loud (or quiet) is the autofocus motor? I’m trying to see if this is a great video lens as well.

I own the lens with a7rii and although I love the lens and do not regret buying it I feel that the honest description is that the eye af doesn’t work 100% accurately. For children it’s too slow. In low light it misses quite often. Even my Sony 85mm f1.8 isn’t up to speed for children and makes mistakes with eye af quite a bit. It might be the body and things probably are way better on a7riii. However on a7rii in the real world things are not so rosy. 100% crops are often missed.